Rowley Dragonborn
by Someone345
Summary: When a warrior comes to Skyrim hoping to make a name for himself, he finds that he is the center of a prophecy and might get more than he bargained for...
1. Escape!

Chapter 1

"Was that really a dragon? Bringers of the end time?" said Hadvar as he turned around to face the prisoner who had followed his lead into the keep. Rowley just nodded. Rowley was a long haired brunnete who looked nordic but was a little shorter and less bulky than your typical Nord. His hair was shoulder length and had brown eyes that were darting accross the room trying to make out what just happened.

"Come here, let me see if I can get those bindings off"  
"Thank the…eight, I was beginning to think you were just gonna hold me prisoner…" said Rowley as Hadvar cut his binds with his iron dagger.  
"Well, I considered it but you weren't on the list so I don't believe you to be a traitor"  
"Don't you think you ought to've said that earlier?" Rowley said eying Hadvar questioningly.  
"You've obviously never been in the legion, if I had said anything of the sort, I would have been next up at the chopping block…" Hadvar said with a slight chuckle.  
"Fair enough" said Rowley.  
"But none of that matters we need to keep moving before that dragon decides to destroy the keep, check some of the chests around here, there should be some weapons and armor in them" said the imperial soldier, sitting down on one of the beds. Rowley immediately ran to each chest looking for something to defend himself with. He found some old imperial light armor and boots. He slipped them on as fast as he could while Hadvar sat on one of the nearby beds trying to collect his thoughts and process what had just happened. Rowley ran up to Hadvar and nodded, indicating that he was ready.  
"Right then" Hadvar said tossing Rowley an iron sword. "I have a feeling you'll be needing this, let's go" Rowley sheathed it and the two ran the doorway.

"I hear voices up ahead" said Rowley.

"Could be stormcloaks, let's see if we can reason with them." Hadvar said walking in a more cautious stance.

"You hear that?" said one of the stormcloak soldiers as the gate holding them in the room started to open.

"IMPERIALS!" screamed one of the stormcloaks as he lifted iron warhammer sitting beside him.

"Imperials?" thought Rowley as he looked at his armor that he had just gotten. "Well…shit…" Rowley said out loud realizing that these people would not listen to reason. The first man went for Hadvar swinging his warhammer like a mad man obviously having little or no experience with the massive weapon. His screaming however caught Hadvar off guard as the madman swung and hit Hadvar's left forearm, knocking him back a little. Rowley took this time to draw his sword and quickly jump behind the attacker and shove his sword into the stormcloak's back, piercing through his chest. He let out a sickening gurgle as blood oozed out of his mouth and he fell to the ground.  
The second stormcloak appeared scared but drew her war axe anyway, charging toward Rowley. She swung at his side trying her best to avenge her friend's killer. He easily deflected the poor attack and threw her into the wall violently. He could tell that he had at least broken a rib or two. She stood up slowely and tried to attack, again failing miserably. Rowley dodged the attack and turned to face his wounded opponent.

"Damn you" said the woman as she tried to catch her breath.

Rowley smirked, "You fought bravely but I'm afraid Sovngarde awaits you. I promise you won't feel a thing."

"To oblivion with you!" yelled the injured soldier as she charged him. Rowley stepped forward and punched her in the nose with his free hand, stunning her long enough for him to swing and decapitate the woman. Her now lifeless body falling to it's knees and collapsing to the floor. Hadvar was in shock at witnessing the skill of what he thought to be a mere commoner who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  
"Are you sure you weren't in the legion?" Hadvar said holding onto his injured arm.  
Rowley simply chuckled and motioned him to follow. "Let's keep moving."

The rest of the way was more or less uneventful except for a few stormcloaks that were equally as bad in combat as the first two the duo had come across. Hadvar was still feeling the effects of his arm being struck by stormcloaks warhammer but he was composed enough to help in the fighting this time around. Rowley pulled his sword out of latest opponent's chest.  
"I hope we're almost out of here, I'm beginning to get bored, these guys won't even put up a decent fight." He said cleaning his blade with one of the stormcloak's cloths.  
"So…what's your story? I've seen my finest fellow soldiers fall in single combat with these rebels, yet… even outnumbered you don't even seem to flinch." Said Hadvar as he tried to catch his breath.  
"Maybe I'll tell you when we get out of…" Rowley said as he noticed several large spiders make their way down from the roof. "What in Kynarath's name is that?!" Yelled Rowley as he drew his sword.  
"Frostbite spiders, very deadly. Watch out for the venom they spit, it can blind and kill you if you you're not careful." Hadvar said quietly to avoid being the sole target of the spiders that just landed on the ground.  
Rowley charged them hoping to end the fight as soon as possible to avoid being poisoned. His past experiences reminding him all too well how bad a poisoning could be. As if the spider could read his mind, it spit it's toxins toward the warrior, hoping to slow down its advancing prey. He dodged it and ran his sword along the spider's side cutting off the limbs of its left side. Turning back around Rowley noticed the spider was squirming around trying to figure out where its legs had gone. He walked up to it and stabbed it in the head killing it instantly. He then turned to see Hadvar doing the same to the other spider that had targeted him. Rowley grinned and turned around to see a spider leap towards him, pinning him to the ground.

Rowley dropped his sword and cursed his stupidity. "Never turn your back to an enemy." He whispered to himself trying to keep the beast's fangs from puncturing his thin armor. "Could use a little help here!" He yelled. Not two seconds later the spider squealed in agony and died falling on top of Rowley. "Thanks." He said sarcastically.  
"Any time friend" joked Hadvar. Rowley pushed the now lifeless body of the spider off of him and retrieved his sword. "Alright let's go" he said finally feeling the effects of constant battle.

10 minutes later they felt a breeze and rushed to where it seemed to come from. They finally found the exit "Thank Tal…" Hadvar said catching himself quickly. "I mean the eight."  
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Rowley said laughing. The two headed toward exit relieved that they finally made it through that maze of a cave.

*Ok, this is my first fan fic so I hope it turns out alright. I promise the next couple chapters get better and funnier so I urge you to hang in there with me. I welcome all criticism and advice. The first chapter seemed short to me but I didn't want the story to start on the way to Helgen since most stories start there and I wanted to end at the end of the cave so...yeah. Also everyone always follows Ralof so I went with Hadvar.


	2. Everyone needs something

Chapter 2

Rowley and Hadvar exited the cave and both had to blink their eyes a bit to adjust to the much awaited light. "Quick, get down." Hadvar said quietly just as the black dragon flew over with a loud roar. "Ok, I think he's gone for good this time. We should head to Riverwood, my uncle runs the smithy there, he should help us."

"How far is that?" asked Rowley.

"Well…this road looks familiar. It's been a while since I last visited my home town. I'd say no more than half an hour." They started down the road closest to them, heading in the direction of Riverwood. "So what was your name again? I'm sure you don't want me calling you prisoner all the time." Hadvar joked.

"I'm Rowley of Bruma."

"Rowley? That's a Breton name. You look Nord to me. By Shor, you fight like one as well."

"I'm actually only half Nord, on my father's side and well I suppose you can guess the other half." Rowley said sighing slightly.

"You bothered by that fact?" asked Hadvar as he chewed on a piece of bread.

"Me? No but most Nords find it…disgraceful to be anything but a full blood Nord. At least that's what I'm used to."

"Sounds to me like Bruma is full of stormcloak supporters."

"I don't know. No one ever mentions the war going on up here but I guess that could be because Bruma is Imperial territory."

Hadvar nodded, finishing his piece of bread.

"You see that those pillars on that mountain, that's Bleak Falls Barrow, never understood how someone could live so close to a creepy place like that.." Hadvar said as he drifted into thought.

"Good thing I have no reason to go up there." Rowley joked as he finished an apple he picked from a nearby tree.

"Ah, good, we made it." Said Hadvar as the duo approached the small village of Riverwood.

"Just out of curiosity…Where's all the snow here? I mean it snows all the time in Bruma and this place is so much farther north. I was always told Skyrim was this snow filled, freezing, unlivable place and this is…well not that." Rowley said motioning toward Riverwood.

"Did it ever occur to you that it might be summer?"

"That…damn you, why do you have to be so logical?" The two shared a laugh.

They approached the smithy when Hadvar tapped the blacksmith on the shoulder and said "Hello uncle."

"Hadvar!" said the smith enthusiastically as he gripped Hadvar's hand in a firm handshake. "How have you been? It's been ages."

"I'm good uncle. It's been a long day though. Do you mind if we speak inside? I need to talk to you about something."

"Of course nephew. Will your friend be joining us?" he said looking at Rowley.

"Nah, I think I'll have a look around, I trust Hadvar will fill you in with all the juicy details of our adventure." Rowley said

"Very well meet me at the inn in an hour, will you?" asked Hadvar.

"Yes sir." Rowley bowing his head trying to imitate a legion gesture.

He began walking around Riverwood marveling at all the lumber the town seemed to handle, looking at the mill where all the wood was processed. A woman passed him and said "Looking for work? How bout you pick up an axe and bring me all the wood you can carry?"

Rowley turned back around and said "Yeah I'll get right on that." Rowley wasn't above manual labor but the thought of cutting wood the rest of the evening after nearly having his head chopped off and being attacked by a dragon didn't sit well with him. He found a large stump alongside the river and decided to sit for a moment and breathe in the fresh air.

"Did I see you talking to Sven?" Rowley turned to see a wood elf carrying some wood staring at him.

"Um…no you did not." He replied.

"Very well, don't he's nothing but trouble." said the elf in an angry tone.

"I don't plan to."

"Good…don't."

"Do I know you?" said Rowley now getting frustrated. The elf stared at him for a moment longer and proceeded to walk away without saying another word. Rowley then set off to find this man named Sven. After asking around for a while he finally found him.

"Faendal thinks he can woo Camilla Valerius away from me. She's already mine, I keep telling him." said the man.

"Faendal? The elf?" said Rowley now starting to see why the elf wanted him to stay away from this Nord.

"Yes the wood elf who thinks he can have my woman, she's mine I keep telling him!"

"Yeah I heard you the first time." said Rowley who was starting to think that these two were recruiting people to their sides.

"Could you give Camilla this letter and say it's from Faendal? I think this will get her to stop spending so much time with that damn elf." said the Nord.

"Don't you think that's kind of a 'dick' move? I mean come on man."

"Fine! I'll get someone else to do it!" yelled the now agitated bard. (Sven is a bard fyi)

"No no. I'll do it. Geez just gimme the damn letter." Rowley said grabbing the letter away from Sven. He walked away and read the letter. "Damn, you are a dick…" he muttered to himself. He headed to the general store where Sven said his "love" worked with her brother.

He opened the door to hear two people arguing about a claw or something, Rowley wasn't paying attention because, frankly, he didn't care. He approached the woman who was arguing and said "Sven wanted me to give you this letter and say it was from Faendal." She took the letter, gasped and shook her head. "Sven wrote this?"

"Yeah he's a dick." Rowley said noticing the man she was arguing with getting agitated that this dark headed Nord had interrupted their conversation.

"He certainly is." replied the woman who Rowley assumed was Camilla even though he didn't bother asking her name. "Well thank you for being honest about this, I'm sure Faendal would be glad to hear you didn't sully his good name. You should speak with him."

"I suppose I could." said Rowley who was starting to realize why these men were chasing after this woman. She wore a simple dress but was still much more beautiful than the woman he had seen in Bruma. She couldn't be older than 22 but seemed smarter than the two men that were chasing her affection.

The man assumed to be Camilla's brother interrupted his thoughts before they got to vile. "So you're with the legion huh? Why don't you round up some men and go get those bandits held up in Bleak Falls Barrow?"

Rowley looked at him questioningly before realizing he was still wearing the light imperial armor he had gotten from earlier that day. "Oh, this? No I'm not an imperial soldier. I just had to suit up as soon as I could earlier and this was the only thing available. Long story…"

The man simply sighed.

"Why were you robbed?" asked Rowley, immediately regretting asking the question because so far the only people he had talked to in this country had asked him to do something for them. Which is how he how he ended up in an imperial ambush to begin with…

*Flashback*

Just outside of Cyrodiil, Rowley was going to ask a group of what appeared to be some guardsman if they would mind helping some funny little man with the goofiest set of clothes he had ever seen to help fix his wheel. It appeared to be an easy fix but Rowley wasn't a handyman nor did he stay with the creepy little man whose voice was so damn annoying that he might have stabbed himself if he had to stay there a moment longer. He approached one of the men and attempted to ask them for help, when out of nowhere he felt a strike to the back of his head and was knocked unconscious. He woke up in a wagon heading to Helgen where he was to get his head lopped off. Where the black dragon appeared and screwed all that up, much to Rowley's delight.

*Back to present time*

"So you'll go and fetch the golden claw then?" asked the man.

'Had he been talking this whole time?' thought Rowley realizing that he was steady nodding his head. "Umm, yeah sure. Bleak Falls Barrow you said?"

"Yes, I've got some gold from my last shipment, it's yours if you get that claw back!" the man said excitingly.

"Bleak Falls Barrow…Why does that sound so familiar?" Rowley thought out loud as he exited the general store.

He entered the inn where he saw the innkeeper arguing with the barkeeper. 'Good thing I don't have to deal that that crazy woman' he thought to himself with a smile. He noticed Hadvar sitting at one of the table and went to sit in the chair opposite him.

"Look who decided to show up." Hadvar said mocking him and handing him a mug of mead.

"Yeah I got caught up in lover's quarrel, but I settled it, so what's the news?"

"Well I explained the situation to my uncle and he insisted that I go to Whiterun and ask the jarl to send some guards here just in case the dragon attacked. I told him I had to report to Solitude and report what happened in Helgen just in case I was the only legionnaire that survived."

"That's a shame." Rowley said as he gulped down the mead.

"Indeed. Which is where you come in. Do you think you could head to Whiterun and deliver the message to Jarl Balgruuf."

"Yes I suppose I could after I run an errand for the shopkeepers down the road. I could use the coin since your legion took all my stuff." Rowley said pointing to his imperial armor.

"Ah yes, speaking of which, I'm having my uncle forge you some new armor since you're not actually with the legion. Wouldn't want any rogue stormcloaks jumping you in the middle of the night." Hadvar said as he wiped the ale from his lips.

"Well you did come through, I was starting to think helping you out of Helgen wasn't gonna pay off." Rowley said laughing before he burped from drinking his mead in one swig. "Alright let's get some food, it's on you, you owe me!" he said hitting the table pretending to be angry.

Hadvar grinned and nodded before throwing an empty mug at Rowley's head.

"Ouch! You ass…"

*Ok two chapters in the book, I hope this one will get me some reviews. The chapters longer than the first one. So what's better, several little chapters or one big chapter at a time? Again I'm new at this, I've seen it done both ways. I welcome all advise, good or negative. Oh yeah can anyone guess the creepy little man in the flashback? Sure ya can!


	3. Creepy blacksmith and dead things

Chapter 3

Rowley awoke around noon the next morning. Escaping soldiers trying to chop your head off, a dragon trying to burn you alive, men who were swinging warhammers at your face and solving a love quarrel all in one day is a perfect excuse for sleeping for 16 hours. He groggily got out of bed after sleeping at Hadvar's uncle's house. Remembering that he was supposed to go to some old crypt and find some golden claw that apparently was stolen by some idiotic bandits. Why someone would go into store and steal one thing is beyond me thought Rowley. He got up and got some leftover breakfast before he head outside to do his measurements for his new armor.

"Good morning." Rowley said "you ready to take my measurements for the…" he yawned "…armor…"

"You do realize it's midday right?" asked Alvor.

"I did not…" he yawned again.

"No matter I took your measurements while you were asleep" Alvor said far more casually than one who had felt up someone who had been sleeping should have said it.

"Oookay…" Rowley responded trying not to let the fact that a big dirty blacksmith basically violated him in the night. "So how's my armor coming along?"

"Very well it's done. I actually set it in the room you were staying in. It's the studded armor and iron boots and gauntlets beside your bed."

"You're a creepy one aren't ya." Rowley whispered to himself.

"What's that?"

"What's what?" Rowley responded trying to pretend like he didn't say anything.

"Oh…I guess it's nothing, just thought I heard you say something. Sometimes I get so lost in my work that I don't pay attention to those around me." Alvor said chuckling as he hammered away at a piece of metal.

"Sure paid attention to me last night…"

"What?"

"Nothing." Rowley said before he slipped back into the house to collect his new armor. Sure enough there sitting there sitting in the corner beside his bed was his armor which looked like it was just forged. He may be a creepy man but he sure can make some fine armor Rowley thought to himself as he fastened the studded armor on. He slipped on his iron boots and gauntlets and attached his iron sword to his waist and headed out the door. He decided it would be best to slip past the blacksmith for fear of another awkward moment that was sure to come they were to talk again. He started to head for Bleak Falls Barrow when he ran into Faendal.

"Hello there." the elf said. "Camilla told me what you did. Thanks for your help, here have some gold for your trouble." He began to reach in his pocket to retrieve some coin.

"Wait a minute, I have a proposition for you." Rowley said cutting him off before he found his coin purse.

"What might that be?" the Faendal said now interested.

"How about you travel with me to Bleak Falls Barrow to help me find the golden claw that was stolen from Camilla's shop? I'm sure it would solidify your relationship with her and I could use the help with the bandits that are camped up there."

Faendal thought for a moment rubbing his chin. This could be the final thing he needed to win Camilla's heart. "Very well." he finally said.

"Excellent! Let's be on our way then" Rowley said motioning Faendal to follow him. They made their way across the bridge that led out of Riverwood. Rowley decided that the path to the left would see them to their destination, which was rather obvious considering the path he chose seemed to head up the mountain…Just a few moments after making this monumental decision a wolf snuck up from behind the two adventurers and latched it's teeth onto Faendal's leg.

"AHHHHHHH!" screamed the elf as the wolf took him off his feet and started to drag him into the woods.

"What tha… I thought wood elves commanded the beasts of the wild?" Rowley said chuckling slightly.

"HELP ME!" screamed Faendal again, pleading for assistance from his traveling partner.

"I mean seriously, just tell it to stop. What kind of wood elf are you?"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?! FOR THE LOVE OF THE DIVINES, HELP ME YOU BASTARD!"

"Fine, there's no need to get violent with me, I was just wondering." Rowley said before stabbing the wolf in the side. "There you go. Now stop playing around and let's get moving."

The elf slowly got to his feet and used his bow as a cane to help him up while muttering, "Remember this is for Camilla…this is for Camilla." he repeated trying to motivate himself to continue on.

The duo continued on the path with little trouble even though Rowley was getting annoyed with their slow progress thanks to Faendal's wound on his leg. They came across what seemed like an old tower, when Rowley noticed movement up ahead. Faendal seemed to notice as well. He notched an arrow to be ready for a bandit ambush. Rowley walked up and noticed a bandit, or what he assumed was a bandit by the way his armor looked, standing against a wall.

"You picked a bad day to get lost friend." The man, who Rowley could tell was obviously a bandit now, said as he drew his steel mace and began to charge Rowley. Rowley drew his sword the second the bandit went to attack him. He took a swing at the adventurer trying to crush his skull. Rowley ducked his head and punched the bandit in the open area of his hide armor. The bandit cringed but used his elbow to hit Rowley in the face with his free hand. Rowley took a step back and wiped his lip with his hand and looked at the blood that was drawn from the hit.

"I haven't seen my own blood in while bandit. Well done." he said with a grin. "But it won't happen again." As soon as the words left his mouth, two more bandits came out of the tower. "Ok, it might happen again." Rowley said sighing. One of the bandits was armed with a warhammer, the other was in all iron armor with an iron sword and shield. As soon as the first bandit smiled at seeing his comrades, an arrow went straight into his skull and he flew back into the wall he was previously standing against.

"I was beginning to think you ran away!" Rowley shouted back at his companion. The bandit with the warhammer looked down at his dead buddy and became enraged. He reached for the hammer on his back when another arrow went through his neck. The man gurgled trying to catch his breath as his lungs filled with blood. He collapsed to the ground while the warhammer fell to his side.

"So…would you like to continue?" Rowley asked the bandit dressed in iron.

The bandit drew his sword and screamed, "Skyrim belongs to the Nords!" then threw his shield in Faendal's direction, hitting him in the face and knocking him unconscious.

"Was it really necessary to scream, Skyrim belongs to the Nords!" Rowley said flailing his arms in the air and making a funny face. "I mean you could have just thrown the shield at him without all that. Twas a total waste of time in my opinion."

"I…well…um, he wasn't, you know, a Nord…"the bandit said stuttering his words.

"So what you're racist or something?" Rowley asked suspiciously.

"What? No, that's just what I learned in bandit boot camp. If you are a Nord, you scream that Skyrim belongs to the Nords to anyone who isn't a Nord, you see I have to it's part of the bandit code."

"I see…" Rowley said rubbing his light chin hair. "What about half Nords? I'm only half Nord."

"Er…um…I don't really know, I'll have to ask at the next meeting."

"Very well then." Rowley said chuckling slightly, "We should really start this fight already, it's beginning to get late and I was hoping to reach Bleak Falls Barrow before it gets to dark. Unless you're willing to surrender?"

"Oh no, no. Let's go then" replied the bandit.

"Ok, you ready?" asked Rowley.

"Yes" replied the bandit.

"Are you sure? Cuz I don't want you to be unprepared…"

"I'm ready, they will sing songs about this battle in Sovngarde." the bandit said smiling at the thought.

The bandit began his charge before tripping over his ally, dropping his sword and falling face first into the blade of said sword, killing him instantly.

Rowley stood there in shock. "Huh…" He then turned around to see Faendal slowly starting to rise with the help of his bow.

"What'd I miss?" he asked Rowley.

"The bandit…he…umm...just…we won, let's just leave it at that." he replied looking back at the clumsy bandit.

The two adventurers set off toward the barrow hoping there wouldn't be too much resistance. They arrived to see fires lit but no bandits in sight, being likely that they retreated into the barrow because it was becoming dark outside due to the blizzard that was approaching. (It's snowing at Bleak Falls Barrow) They then entered the large doors that lead into Bleak Falls Barrow and noticed two bandits standing next to a fire.

"I got this." said the elf as he was reaching for his bow. He notched an arrow and let it fly, hitting one of the bandits in the chest killing him almost instantly.

"Who's there?" One of the bandits asked drawing his bow. He began walking around a bit, looked at his dead friend and sheathed his bow. "Must've been the wind."

"Is he serious?" asked Rowley. Faendal shrugged. "I gotta idea." the half Nord said giggling. "See that barrel next to him?" the elf nodded. "Shoot it. I wanna see what he does." Faendal notched an arrow and shot it, hitting the barrel.

"What was that?" the bandit said, drawing his bow again. He searched around a bit before seeing his dead friend again. "Whoever did this is gonna pay."

"Just noticed that did he?" Rowley said watching in amazement at how incredibly dumb this bandit was.

The bandit ran around a bit longer and said, "Whoever's out there, knock it off." He then sheathed his bow again.

"Wow….just put the poor bastard out of his misery." Rowley said trying not to go into full blown laughter. Faendal let lose another arrow hitting the bandit in the shoulder.

"What was that?" the bandit asked again drawing his bow a third time. He began his search again.

"What…the fuck?" Rowley asked in an alarming tone. "Shoot him again." The elf notched and fired yet again, hitting the bandit in the back.

"Ugh." the bandit said now heading in the direction of the two adventurers.

"Again." whispered Rowley now growing increasingly more concerned. The elf shot again hitting the bandit in the stomach but he kept advancing. "Shoot him shoot him shoot him shoot him!" Rowley now screamed. Faendal let loose a flurry of arrows hitting the bandit everywhere but the head. The elf finally landed one right between the eyes and bandit finally fell. The two slowly approached the now hopefully dead bandit that they could now tell was an Orc. Rowley pulled out his iron sword and began poking the bandit to see if he was alive.

"Is…Is he dead?" asked the elf who was shaking nervously.

"Yeah, I think so." replied Rowley who was still poking the lifeless body of the Orc. "Let's keep moving, hopefully we won't run into any more super bandits…"

The duo set off again, going deeper and deeper into increasingly smelly ruins. They started to hear a bandit mumbling to himself around the corner so the two crouched and snuck up close enough so they could see what was happening.

"Hmm…Wonder what this lever does?" the bandit asked himself. "I bet it opens that gate" he proceeded to pull the lever and have hundreds of little dart shoot him down where he stood.

Rowley decided to have a look around where the bandit now laid dead. He looked around and found 3 pillars that seemed movable. When he went to check, they did indeed spin. They each had three symbols that seemed to click into place each time he rotated one of them. He looked around the room to see if he could find a clue as to what he needed to do to open the gate. He noticed some symbols on the wall and decided to match the pillars in the order that was on the wall. He pulled the lever and…the gate opened.

"Hahaha!" Rowley said excitedly and then crossed his arms. "I got this tomb raiding thing down to an art form."

They proceeded to head through the gate and down a winding staircase. There was little trouble except for the mildly annoying skeevers that posed no real threat. They were walking and then heard a man that was yelling for help. The two cautiously began running to the sound of the pleading man when they came across a big room with a Dunmer stuck in some spider webs on the other side. All of a sudden a HUGE frostbite spider descended down from a hole in the ceiling and landed right in front of Rowley. Rowley drew his sword and immediately began hacking away at the monstrous beast while Faendal at a safe distance began filling it with arrows. Rowley's iron sword was having little effect on the beast.

"Go for the underbelly!" yelled Faendal as he notched another arrow.

Rowley immediately slid under the fowl creature and shoved his sword into the beast several times, each stab releasing more and more goo blood over the warrior. The creature stood up on its hind legs, let out a screeching yelp and began to collapse to the ground. Rowley quickly ducked out of the way before the spider crushed him.

"That…was disgusting…" Rowley said trying his best to remove the slime that now covered his body.

"Now that you're done playing hero, you think you could get me out of this webbing?!" the Dunmer yelled getting more agitated with each passing second.

"Fine." Rowley said removing the last bit of slime off his armor. "Hey, while I have you here, have you come across a claw-like object by chance?"

"Claw? Oh yes the golden claw. I have it right here. If you cut me down I'll show you how to use it to open the door at the end of this tomb." the dark elf said while trying to wiggle free.

"Treasure huh? Alright I'll cut you down, be still." Rowley said enthusiastically.

"You think we can trust him? What if he makes a mad dash down the hall in order to escape and keep the treasure to himself?" asked Faendal who was carefully plucking arrows out of the dead spider.

"Nah, poor feller is terrified. I don't think he'll try anything." Rowley said as he cut off the last bit of web. "There you go."

The Dunmer immediately turned around and ran down the hall. "You fool, what makes you think I want to share the treasure with anyone! Hahaha!"

Faendal merely glanced at Rowley giving him an evil stare.

"I don't wanna hear it…" Rowley said as he pulled out his sword and began chasing after the bandit. The two ran after him until they found the Dunmer trying to figure out which way to go while standing next to a wall.

"Stop right there! You've nowhere to go, just hand me the claw before something bad happens." Rowley said in his most threatening voice.

"Just, just leave me alo…" he tried to say before a sword was sticking out of his chest. Behind him stood a creature Rowley had never encountered before. It looked more decayed than the zombies he was used to in Cyrodiil but had blue glowing eyes and apparently knew how to wield weapons.

"Draugr…" Faendal said shaking. "I thought they were a myth."

"Let's get'm!" Rowley yelled charging the strange being. He ran up to the one that had killed the bandit and lopped its head off. "Hmph, that was easy." he said laughing. He turned around to see another one swinging its greatsword his way he ducked and drove his sword through its belly, pulled it out and did a backspin swinging his sword and cutting down the draugr where it stood. He took a look around to see another one being taken down by an arrow through the head. He looked around one last time and saw no immediate danger was in sight so he sheathed his sword.

"I guess they're no better than us living folks." the elf said trying to regain his composure.

Rowley picked up the golden claw and dusted it off. "Alright you ready to go get that treasure little buddy?" he said picking at his sidekick.

"Sure…we made it this far what's the worst that could happen?" he responded before stepping on a pressure plate and being impaled by a swinging spiked wall. The wall crept back to its original location with the elf still hanging from the spikes.

"Holy shit!" Rowley said shocked at what had just witnessed. "Are you ok?" he asked poking the lifeless body of Faendal. The body slid off the spikes and fell to the floor. "Guess not. Eh, he knew what he was in for when he came to a creepy ass tomb…" He proceeded to take the gold that was offered to him earlier out of the elf's pocket and preceded carefully through the rest of the tomb. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful other than the occasional draugr that came out of nowhere but they posed little threat. He eventually found a huge door with symbols on it.

"Hmm…why do those look familiar?" he said out loud reaching for the golden claw he had with him. He then matched the symbols on the claw to the ones on the wall and inserted the claw. The door symbols twisted around a bit then the door slowly started to descend into the ground. Behind it was a huge cavern with a stairway that led up to a wall with strange markings all over it. He walked up the stairs and started hearing voices that seemed to lure him to the wall. He got closer and when he got close enough, the voices stopped and a light seemed to engulf the young warrior.

"Fus." he whispered as if he should know this word's meaning. Before he had time to think about it, a lid to a nearby coffin-like structure popped open revealing a rather large draugr wearing some old rusted armor.

"Dovahkiin." the creature muttered.

*Ok 3 chapters down. Still hoping to get that first review so please review, my life may or may not depend on it...lol. So how many people had that problen at a low level where you tried to sneak attack someone with a bow and the bastard just wouldn't go down and he always ended up with like 50 arrows stuck in him? haha good times...


	4. First defeat

Chapter 4

"Dovahkiin." The creature said pointing his finger toward Rowley. He did not understand what the draugr had said but he felt like he should know the language for some unknown reason. The strange being withdrew his sword slowly.

"Fent ni filok." The creature said laughing his evil laugh. "Bwahahahaha!"

"Fantastic." Rowley said realizing this draugr was not going to be as easy to defeat as the ones earlier.

He began his assault on the creature immediately going for the kill shot stabbing for its chest. The draugr deflected his attack with his rusty yet sturdy sword and immediately kicked Rowley in the gut sending him flying into the carved wall.

"Damn…well that didn't work…" was all the downed man could say. The creature simply laughed at Rowley and got back into its fighting stance. Rowley stood back up trying to read his enemy but he didn't quite know the large draugr's fighting style just yet so he couldn't see any weakness in his stance. The creature Rowley now nicknamed "Turd" began walking toward him readying his sword. It then began running towards him and began its assault. It swung its sword to Rowley left side, Rowley blocked the attack, it then swung to his right, and again Rowley blocked it. It then swung for his mid section forcing Rowley to dodge back to avoid being cut open by the still sharp ancient sword.

Rowley then began his attack on the draugr this time hoping to avoid being kicked to the wall. He swung his iron sword going for its neck but the creature easily blocked the attack and went to kick Rowley in the gut again. This time he jumped back to avoid its powerful kick.

"Not this time Turd!" It merely growled at Rowley. Turd then lunged at Rowley, attempting to knock him off balance but the warrior saw this coming and quickly ducked out of the way and jumped behind the draugr. He then sliced at its back barely cutting the creature's armor. Realizing his attack did nothing he quickly kicked Turd in the back of the knee forcing the creature to its knees. He then went to decapitate the draugr, but it grabbed Rowley's sword arm, then slowly stood back up facing the now helpless combatant. He struggled to get his arm free but it was no use, he then went for the only tactic that was left available to him…he kicked the creature in the groin hoping that for one thing the creature was a male and two, that if there was anything still there, it would still hurt the draugr. It apparently worked perfectly, Turd immediately let go of his arm and fell to its knees again.

Rowley jumped back quickly and rubbed his now free wrist.

"He's strong, I'll give him that." he said as the draugr regained his composure.

"Tahrodiis dovahkiin!" shrieked the now very agitated draugr.

"I do not understand the words that are coming out of your mouth! Shut up! I mean really. Does it look like I have any idea what you are saying?!" He yelled starting to get frustrated with his challenging opponent. "I don't have any dove canes! I don't even know what that is! So stop asking!"

The draugr looked confused but resumed his assault on the Nordbreton. It took a stab at Rowley, trying to pierce his studded armor. Rowley jumped back barley dodging the blade as it slightly pierced his armor. Rowley then took a swing at the draugr trying to at least injure the undead man. The draugr of course was having none of it, deflected the attack and attempted to punch Rowley in the nose. He ducked and threw his own punch at the draugr, hitting his target right where his nose should have been. But being undead his nose was not there, which is a little odd considering it, he still had testicles…It staggered back again clutching its face. Rowley then rushed forward trying to catch his opponent off guard. This worked to perfection, Rowley's blade went straight through Turd's chest. Rowley smiled at what he just accomplished when the supposedly dead undead monster grabbed Rowley's arm and began pushing the blade deeper into its own chest until Rowley was just a few inches away from its face. It half smiled at him, inhaled deeply and, "FUS RO DAH!" yelled the draugr.

Rowley was pushed back with the force of a hundred mammoths running into him. He slammed into wall barley able to stay conscious. He saw the draugr pulling his iron sword from its chest and throw it to the ground as he began to approach the downed warrior. Rowley shook his head trying to stay awake. Rowley slowly stood up. He knew what had to be done but he couldn't help but feel defeated because he was resorting to this tactic, his father always called cowardly.

He felt the heat rushing into his hands, he always loved how powerful this made him feel but his father's words always echoed through his head whenever he conjured the magic.

"Better to die with honor than to win with magic." Rowley shook his head to rid him of the thought. He had no choice, it was either him or the undead man. The choice was obvious.

Rowley reached out and flames erupted from his hands and consumed the draugr. It screamed in agony but could do nothing against the power of Rowley's flames. It dropped its sword and ran around trying to douse the flames but Rowley kept the fire on it not giving it a chance. It eventually fell and the stench of burning flesh began to take over the cavern.

Rowley slid back down the wall he had originally been thrown into and sighed. This was the first opponent he faced that he could not be in hand to hand combat at that fact was beginning to sink in to the beat down and exhausted warrior. He felt ashamed having to resort to his magic to take down an opponent but a certain part of him was exhilarated by the defeat of his enemy. Rowley couldn't explain it but it gave him new life as he started to make his way out of the tomb. He walked past the body of the now roasted draugr and noticed it had seemed to drop something. It was a large tablet that had some strange markings on it much like the wall that had lit up earlier. The word "Fus" kept coming to his mind but he had no idea what it meant. Rowley decided it was best not to linger, so he grabbed the stone tablet and backtracked through the cave and eventually made it back to the large doors at the beginning of the tomb. He couldn't help but wonder if there was an easier way to exit the barrow but he had already made it back to the entrance so he let the thought slide. He cracked open the doors to see that it was now dark out and decided to go sleep in one of the bandit's bedrolls near the entrance until morning.

Rowley opened his eyes and gingerly got out of his temporary bedding. He found some bread and water the bandits had stashed away and made himself a quick breakfast. He opened the doors where the light of the new day greeted him. It felt like he had spent an eternity down in that tomb. He was ready to get back to Riverwood and have a proper meal, he hadn't eaten anything but that stale bread since yesterday afternoon. He made his way back down the snow ridden path, eyeing where the bodies of the bandits just were yesterday. They of course had vanished as did most things that were slain in the wilderness. Rowley didn't know if it was wolves or some other scavenger that always cleaned up the bodies of the dead after the killer had left but decided it was best to leave the unknown be.

He eventually his way back down to Riverwood carrying the tablet which was not exactly a light object but he thought it might be worth something so he decided to take it along. He made his way to the general store to give back the golden claw he had wrapped to his armor with a belt.

"Well hello there friend." greeted Lucan Valerius as Rowley entered the store. Rowley placed the golden claw on the counter and glared at the shopkeeper.

"The claw! You, you found it?! I'm gonna put this back where it belongs. I, I'll never forget this, you've done a great service for me and my sister." he said as he gave Rowley a purse for of coins.

"300? Wow, there might be something to this adventuring thing after all." Rowley said as he tried to juggle the coin purse and his newly found stone tablet.

"That's a rather large object you have there. Can I interest you in this?" Lucan asked, pulling out a small satchel.

"Yeah I don't think that's big enough to carry this thing…" he replied looking at the small bag set before him.

"Ah, but this is no ordinary satchel said the shopkeeper, see watch." Lucan said motioning Rowley to hand him the stone. The man took the stone held it over the satchel and whispered "Gandra." The bag emitted a golden light and the stone vanished.

"What? Where did? How did? Where's my rock thing?" Rowley asked completely shocked at the sight before him.

"Well, it's in this bag here." he responded holding up the satchel shaking it. "This can hold up to one hundred pounds of equipment or whatever you want to carry, while itself not even weighing a single pound. All you have to do is hold whatever object you're wanting it to hold over the bag and whisper 'Gandra' which means gift in the Ayleid tongue. To withdraw something, just repeat that word with your hand in the bag and think of the item you are trying to take out. Simple no?"

"That would come in handy." Rowley said thinking of all the stuff he could carry with such an artifact.

"Indeed it would." Lucan said full of pride. "And it can be yours for the low, low price of just three hundred gold."

"But…but that's all the coin you gave me…" responded Rowley feeling as if his time in Bleak Falls Barrow may have been for nothing.

"Yes, yes it is, but if you consider the amount of valuables you may find on your adventure you could have three hundred gold in no time at all and then some." he replied with a grin.

Rowley thought for a moment and decided it would be a good investment. He handed the man his gold back and got the enchanted satchel and tied it to his armor. He said goodbye to the merchant and went to go out the door when Camilla entered.

"Oh your back?" she asked looking around. "Where's Faendal? I saw him go up with you to the barrow."

Rowley cringed. "Umm...He uh…didn't…make it…" he finally let out.

She looked shocked and disappointed for a moment, and then she smiled again. "Well, that's life in Skyrim I suppose." Rowley looked shocked at how well she seemed to take this news. "You're a strapping young man, don't be a stranger." she said winking at Rowley.

Rowley stared for a moment and then realized what the young seductress was implying. She grabbed his hand and led him upstairs.

"OH COME ON CAMILLA!" screamed the woman's brother. I'M RIGHT HERE!"

*Yes! Rowley is a mage as well. Ok translation. Tahrodiis dovahkiin=Dragon for treacherous dragonborn. Fent ni filok=Dragon for you shall not escape. Gandra=Ayleid for gift. Just an fyi, parts of the lore on dragons and dragonborn stuff, I have altered a bit just to change things up a bit. And I know some of this is a little predictable but it all leads to the "realizing he's dragonborn" business where I can start making some alterations. I hope yall can be patient with me. And review please, help me improve my story if it needs it. I just wanna feel some love out there. Or hate…something to show that people are reading. Maybe a follow or two would be nice…I'll acknowledge you I promise :)


	5. Dragonborn

Chapter 5

*Just giving out a shout out to my first reviewer! Thank you **Epicnick101**. If you haven't checked out his story yet, do so now.*

Rowley awoke from his sleep with the latest woman he had bedded laying on his chest. She was a little thing but Rowley wasn't as big as most Nords any due to the Breton blood he shared with his mother, so the fact that she was Imperial didn't bug him in the slightest. Most Nords men only took women who were near or just as good in battle as they were. Rowley didn't understand this since most women who were good in battle weren't always the best looking group. He liked his woman soft and… woman like. Although he would never admit this to anyone, women who could fight scared him because he found it hard to size up a woman due to the fact that no matter how good in battle they were, they were usually smaller in comparison to the men thus making him size them up improperly. Also he always ended up staring at their breast if they were indeed attractive…

It was well into the afternoon as was the usual for him. He gently tried to remove the woman from his chest while simultaneously getting out of the bed as quietly as possible. He was successful. He then went for his armor and boots that were tossed casually onto the floor from the wonderful night before. He slipped them on as quickly and as quietly as possible hoping to avoid the awkward moment after he always seemed to have with woman after bedding them. He wasn't a womanizer or anything but the last thing he wanted now was a relationship. He wanted to establish a name for himself before taking a wife and what better place to do it in then Skyrim.

He slipped on his gauntlets and strapped his iron sword to his waist, then gingerly started making his way down the staircase.

"I'm actually gonna make it." he whispered to himself grinning before misjudged his step and tumbled down the stairs crashing into a cupboard. He looked up to see Lucan manning the front desk looking at him and shaking his head. He then looked up just in time to see pots and pans showering down on him. It seemed the divines themselves were angry with him and commanded the kitchen supplies to destroy him as each and every single piece hit him in the head one after the other. He looked back up at Lucan who was just staring at the down and beaten Nordbreton.

"Just…just go." the shopkeeper said massaging the temples on his head obviously frustrated. Rowley obliged, getting out of the shop as soon as possible. He decided to stop by the inn for a quick lunch, using the gold he confiscated from Faendal the wood elf and then left for Whiterun to deliver the message to the jarl.

He made his way to the city of Whiterun with relative ease, having the occasional wolf trying to eat him, which Rowley found odd because he though wolves were more of a scavenger. He didn't mind though because he decided to skin them and sell the pelt for a small profit since he used most of the gold he had left on a rather large lunch. He finally saw in the distance a large city surrounded by a rather old wall. It was a beautiful sight but since he always seemed to wake up at noon, he thought it'd be best to make his way to the city before it became nightfall. He heard what appeared to be fighting in the distance and looked to see a man and two women surrounding a rather large being that was swinging its large club around trying to squash the people who were attacking it. Rowley watched for a moment when the large being swung its club striking the large Nord and sending him flying into a nearby fence.

"Farkas, noo! Damn you giant!" cried the woman with the bow as she notched another arrow.

Rowley decided it would be best if he lent a hand to the warriors who were down to two. One was slashing at its legs, while the other was shooting arrows into its body. He rushed over, jumped the fence and leapt onto the giant's back. He began stabbing the large being in the back hoping to get its attention away from the two women. This tactic apparently worked considering the giant dropped its club and immediately started to try and reach whatever was causing it harm on its back. Taking advantage of her now distracted target, the woman dressed in ancient Nordic armor, took aim and fired for the giant's head. She hit it right between the eyes and the giant stood for a moment reached for the arrow, pulled it out and began to fall with Rowley still on its back.

"No no no no!" Rowley yelled as the giant began to fall on its back with him still on it. He leapt off at the last moment and landed perfectly on his feet.

"Whew…" he said gasping as he poked the giant with his bloody sword.

"That was quite the performance." the woman with the bow said laughing. She had war paint of what appeared to resemble a claw of some sort across her face. Rowley noted that she was actually a very attractive woman despite appearing to be a warrior of some sort. "You fight well. You'd make for a decent shield brother."

"Shield brother? What's that?" Rowley asked trying not to look down at the woman through her revealing armor.

"We're a group of warriors who deal with missions the guards won't take." She said nodding at the man who was knocked out from the earlier fight.

"Is he alright?" Rowley asked puzzled at how fast the man got up after taking a hit like that, also noting how much stronger the warriors from Skyrim were from the one's from Cyrodiil.

"He'll be fine. He's taken worst hits from me." she said chuckling. "So if you're looking to join talk to our harbinger Kodlak, he'll see if you got what it takes."

Rowley nodded and said goodbye to the fellow warriors and made his way to Whiterun. The last thing he wanted to do was join a faction. He was already kicked out of the fighter's guild in Cyrodiil for trying to dual the leader there. The leader actually accepted the dual not thinking the newcomer would be much of a challenge. As it turns out the leader proved not too be much of a challenge for Rowley. He was immediately kicked out for beating the leader in a dual causing the leader to lose his right arm. Rowley was immediately snapped back into reality by a guard.

"Whiterun is not accepting visitors at this time. Turn around and go back the way you came." the guard said rudely.

"I have news about the dragon attack. I was at Helgen." Rowley said pointing back in the direction of Helgen.

"Dragon attack?! Oh you should go in right away, the jarl will want to see you." The guard responded hastily opening the large doors for Rowley.

Rowley entered and saw what appeared to be an imperial soldier arguing with the local blacksmith. He noted that the woman who was the blacksmith, although dirty from a hard day's work was also pretty attractive. He wondered if there were any fat or ugly women in Skyrim. He then saw a very old woman who looked like a decaying raisin and that set him straight. He then asked a guard where he could find the jarl. The guard pointed him to Dragon's Reach, which apparently was at the top of the town. The guard tried to explain that there were three levels of Whiterun but Rowley didn't really care, he was just hoping for a reward for delivering the message to the jarl so he could afford to rent a room at the local tavern. He kept asking for directions from the locals because everyone seemed to want him to run an errand for them and he kept getting distracted from their requests. He was finally told that if he kept following the staircases up, he would eventually find the elusive Dragon's Reach. He did as he was told and sure enough he found himself at the top of the city in front of the jarl's base of operations. He made his way inside and was greeted by all sorts of wonderful smells that made Rowley's stomach growl. He made his way up the stairs in the palace and he saw a man that he assumed to be the jarl sitting in his throne with a bald man and a dark elf standing beside him. The elf notice Rowley and unsheathed her steel sword.

"What's the meaning of this interruption?" the Dunmer asked walking towards Rowley.

"I have news from Helgen about the dragon attack." he responded trying to act like nobility which he most definitely was not.

"No wonder the guards let you in. Very well follow me." She (she's a girl fyi) sheathed her blade and motioned him to follow her towards the jarl. She motioned him to stop in front of the jarl as she continued on. She whispered something in his ear, then the jarl's eyes widened for a moment before he collected himself.

"Irileth tells me you have news about Helgen, so go on let's hear it." Jarl Balgruff demanded.

"Umm… yeah so I was about to get my head chopped off by the imperial legion." Rowley began before he was interrupted.

"That's not really a good way to start a story…"Balgruff said with his hands now covering his face. "How do you know I won't just turn you in to the imperials myself?"

"Yeah but…"Rowley didn't really have a good answer for that. "So…I was…definitely not about to be executed for being accused of being a rebel." He started, looking at the jarl for approval, the jarl just motioned to continue. "Ok, yeah so I was on the chopp…I mean bench watching…butterflies…when a giant black dragon came out of nowhere and began destroying the whole town. Me and Hadvar made our way through the keep and found a back exit through a cave. His uncle wanted me to ask you for some guards to send over to Riverwood just in case of a dragon attack." Rowley finally finished saying all that in one breath.

"You certainly talk fast… Irileth send a detachment to Riverwood at once." the jarl demanded of his Dunmer housecarl.

"Yes my jarl." Irileth responded.

"You there. What is your name?" Balgruff asked Rowley.

"I'm Rowley of Anvil." he responded respectfully.

"Rowley, follow me, let's go have a chat with Farengar, my court wizard." the jarl said motioning Rowley to follow him. "He's been working on finding ways to fight these dragons." he finished, watching Rowley scarf down a sweet roll he discreetly stole off a nearby table. "You know you could end up in prison for that?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."Rowley said as he wiped off the remaining icing off his mouth. "You have no proof."

"I just saw…never mind. This is Farengar, he has a task for you to carry out. Do this and I'll be in your debt." he said walking back to his throne.

"A jarl in my debt…I like the sound of that." Rowley whispered, smiling at his great fortune. "So Farengar, whatcha got for meh?"

"So you must be the jarl's newest hired hand. Very well, what I need you to do is go to Bleak Falls Barrow, find this tablet, no doubt in the main chamber, and bring it here to me, simple yes?" Farengar said plainly as he had absolutely no care in the world.

"Tablet? You mean this rock with the fancy carvings on it?" Rowley said as he pulled out the stone tablet from his Ayleid pouch.

"The tablet of Bleak Falls Barrow? You've already found it?!" Farengar shrieked. "Give it to me!" he practically screamed as he snatched it away from Rowley. He began to fondle and massage the old tablet in a perverted way. "Oh yes, yes, you're mine now. I can't believe it. It's been a long time coming..." he said as he began to…well mount the old stone. Rowley looked at him utterly shocked at the weird fetish this old wizard apparently had. "What?! Go away! I have research to do!" he yelled at Rowley.

"Of course you do…" Rowley said as he slowly walked away from the old pervert.

"Farengar!" Rowley turned around to see Irileth running up and yelling for the old wizard. "Farengar! You need to come at once! There's a…"she stopped looking at the wizard confused. "What…What's he doing?" she asked Rowley.

"I…um…He's… having a moment with his new lover?" he said nervously chuckling. Farengar now had the stone face down on a table as he dry humped it.

"FARENGAR!" the Dunmer finally yelled getting the wizard's attention. "There's a dragon at the western watchtower, come with me!" she sternly told him. "You should come too." she said to Rowley.

"A dragon? How exciting." the old pervert said smiling. Rowley instantly imagined Farengar mounting the leg of the black dragon from Helgen. He shook his head to relieve him of the disturbing thought. They made their way up some stairs to the top of Dragon's Reach into what appeared to be a war room of some sort. There was a guard talking to the jarl explaining what happened at the watch tower. Rowley glanced over to see Farengar licking his lips and moving around excitingly, his eyes filled with lustful anticipation. This gave Rowley chills as he again imagined Farengar and the black dragon.

"Irileth, I want you to gather some guards and go investigate the dragon attack." the jarl commanded his housecarl.

"Yes my jarl." she responded.

"Hmph, sucks to be you." Rowley whispered chuckling to himself.

"I want you to go as well, you have experience with these dragons. You'll be of great use." he said to Rowley.

"…shit…" sighed the Nordbreton.

"Here take this sword, it's from my personal armory." He said handing Rowley a very fine steel sword. "It was crafted by Eorlund Grey-Mane himself at the skyforge. It was a gift to me when I became jarl but I think it would be put to better use in your hands against a dragon. Tis certainly better than that old iron sword of yours." He said laughing casually. "Be on your way then."

Rowley nodded and headed toward the exit with his new steel sword strapped to his waist. He made his way down to the gates when the blacksmith stopped him. "Are you going against that dragon the guards were just talking about?" she asked.

"Yes…yes I am." He responded trying to look excited about fighting the beast.

"Here take this." she said as she handed an iron helm with carved horns coming from the side of it. "Might come in handy."

"Thank you very much." he said grabbing the helm and putting it on. He normally wouldn't take anything unless he earned it but since he wasn't entirely sure he would come back from this, he wasn't about to argue. He made his way outside the city walls and toward the western watchtower, which he could see burning in the distance. He found Irileth and her guards just outside the scorched area where the tower was.

"I don't see a dragon, but it sure looks like one's been here." she said scanning the area. "Let's move out and see if we can find any survivors."

Rowley, Irileth and the guards set off toward the tower but didn't see any sign of life anywhere. Rowley and the Dunmer decided to check out the tower when they saw a man creep out from the tower's entrance.

"Stay, stay back, it's still around here somewhere. Logi and Torrek got snatched up when they tried to make a run for it." the frightened guard said looking to the sky nervously. "Kynareth save us, here he comes again!" Rowley and Irileth looked up and saw a dragon coming down from the mountain.

"Guards get ready! Make every arrow count!" Irileth screamed to the Whiterun guards.

The guards started wildly firing arrows in the direction of the dragon, not one hitting its mark. Rowley began to wonder how he was supposed to hit a flying enemy without using his magic in front of the guards. Right then the dragon did a fire breath drive by seemingly aimed at Rowley. He ducked out of the way barley dodging the flames. He looked up to see the guards firing more arrows at the dragon, this time most of them hitting there mark, but they simply bounced off the dragon's thick scaly hide. Rowley desperately looked around to try and find a way to down the dragon.

"The watchtower." he whispered to himself and began running for the tower. He made his way to the top of the tower and looked to see the dragon scoop up a guard and hurl him into the sky. It seemed to be looking for something as it casually flew across the landscape. It looked around and saw Rowley on the tower and began flying towards him. It came right to the edge of the tower and flew in place, hovering just out of reach of Rowley.

"Dovahkiin?" it seemed to whisper. It then inhaled deeply. Rowley knew what this meant and immediately ran for and jumped toward the dragon. The dragon seemed surprised by this and attempted to fly away before Rowley could reach him. This did not work as the warrior drew his sword in mid air sunk it into the dragon's back. It screamed in pain and agony as it tried to throw off its new passenger. Rowley held on for dear life as the dragon spun and flew in circles trying to toss him to the ground. He gripped the one of the beast's spikes that were along its back and drew his blade from the dragon's flesh. He then began to assault the dragon's wings trying to get it to land before he fell off. The dragon appeard to know what his attacker was trying to do and flew to the top of the tower hoping its attacker would jump off at the first sight of ground. As soon as the dragon landed on the tower, Rowley hacked and cut the dragon's wing and partially tore it off. This would keep the dragon grounded. Rowley jumped off the dragon's back and tried to catch his breath from the trip through the sky he just took. The dragon roared in agony and turned around to see warrior catch his breath and look up in terror. The dragon took in a deep breath trying again to shower his foe in flames. Rowley saw what was coming but was backed to the edge of the tower, he looked and saw a banded iron shield just within reach. In a desperate attempt to save his life he held the shield up just as flames were shot his way.

The fire engulfed the dragon's foe easily destroying him…or so the dragon thought. It looked to see Rowley put his shield down from his face and look up astonished that the flames did not kill him. Rowley looked to see that his body was slightly burned but not anywhere near life threatening, more like a slight sunburn. Rowley could see the look confusion on the dragon's face and took this chance to rush the beast. He bashed the dragon's face with his shield, stunning it long enough for him to jump on top of its head. He began hacking and slashing at the dragons head before he sent his sword straight down into the dragon's skull, piercing its brain and killing the beast. He jumped off its head, panting, getting his shield ready in case the dragon was trying to play him for a fool. The dragon went limp and crashed down. Rowley heard a movement coming from the staircase that lead to the top of the tower and looked to see a guard peeking up looking at the now slain dragon.

"Is…Is it dead?" the guard nervously asked.

"I think so…" Rowley said still trying to catch his breath, his arms were cut from the scales of the beast when he was flying atop the dragon's back.

All of a sudden the dragon began to glow orange and its skin seemed to disintegrate from its bones. Then a swirling gust of bright energy flew toward Rowley, engulfing him in light.

*Da, da, daah. Dragonborn. Ok sorry it took so long to get this chapter out but I got busy and crap. Anyway so my dragonborn is resistant to dragon fire thus making him better at fighting dragons. Had to give him an advantage over any old adventurer who wanted to slay a dragon. So want to congratulate me on my awesome story? or maybe give me some pointers or ideas? Review! You know you want to


	6. Home sweet home

Chapter 6

*I did make a slight change to chapter 1 because I just now thought that I never gave a physical description of my character, so…my bad*

His body seemed to be absorbing this radiant energy that came from the dragon. His cuts and bruises from the fight seemed to heal and Rowley felt a sudden burst of energy course through his body. He had never felt more alive in his entire life. He felt stronger, more agile and just overall better, like something that had been hidden for so long had finally came to life. The word from the wall seemed clear like he should have known what it meant this whole time.

"Fus!" he shouted. A burst of raw energy leapt from his mouth and pushed the guard that was hiding in the stairwell was pushed back enough to make him lose his footing and topple down the stairs. The guard landed at the bottom of the stairs with Rowley chasing him down. Fortunately the fall wasn't fatal that Rowley could tell as the guard immediately jumped back up and dusted himself off.

"You…you're dragonborn!" the man finally let out looking up at Rowley as he descended the stairs. "I can't believe it! You stole its very soul, I saw you shout! Could you do that before?"

"Shout? Dragonborn? What are you talking about?" Rowley asked being very confused about the whole situation.

"In the very oldest tales." the guard said as several more guards and Irileth entered the tower. "There were warriors who could slay dragons and take their power. That's what you did isn't it?"

"I…I don't know what happened…" he responded looking back up the stairs to where the battle had taken place.

"What's going on here? What happened to the dragon?!" Irileth demanded.

"He killed the dragon and stole its soul! I saw the whole thing!" The guard said patting Rowley on the back. "He can shout now! Show them, show them you can shout!"

Rowley looked around the room and saw that all eyes were on him waiting for him to do something. He quickly remembered the word he used earlier. "Fus!" he shouted. Everyone in front of him was pushed back slightly, one actually lost his footing and fell over. These weren't the most physically gifted people…

"Whoa!" everyone, except Irileth, said in a "surfer dude" tone of voice.

"You truly are dragonborn. You can shout now. You couldn't before, could you?" another guard asked.

"No he couldn't, I already asked him." the first guard said slapping the other guard in the back of the head. "What do you think housecarl?"

"All I know is that anyone is good enough to put down a dragon is good enough for me." Irileth responded.

"What a bitch!" one of the guards yelled.

"What?!" Irileth asked looking around for the culprit. "Who said that?!" The guards fell silent.

"Anyway… you should report your findings to the jarl at one." Irileth said sounding a bit jealous that all the guards were clamoring around Rowley. "I'll stay here and calm these fools down."

"Um, yeah, sure...ok then." Rowley responded still trying to comprehend what had just occurred. He set off down the path towards Whiterun. He decided to test his new power on anything that looked like it could be pushed around. The poor bunnies and chickens would be scared for life by the strange being that kept "Fus"ing them without mercy while running down the road. He eventually made his way through the Whiterun gates and saw some Redguards being hassled by a local guard. He thought nothing of it and decided it was none of his business anyway, he had more important things to do. Half way through the city, a young woman was trying to talk to him about becoming a merchant or something and wanted him to find a mammoth tusk. He said he'd think about it. Not two minutes later a woman asked him to go find some weapon to help revive a dead tree…a dead tree! Rowley just looked at the woman and shook his head. And then a young boy came up to him and asked him to make a little girl stop bullying him. Rowley handed the child an iron dagger and sent the boy on his way. Rowley almost made it to his destination when a loud thundering voice echoed across the sky.

"DOV-AH-KIIN!" He had heard that before but couldn't quite place it.

"That's what that draugr was saying in the crypt the day before…" Rowley whispered to himself. "Someone else probably wanting me to do something else for them…"

He made his way back to Dragon's Reach to report his new found awesomeness that apparently was a big deal. He opened the doors to the palace and saw the jarl talking to the bald guy in fine clothes and some big Nord in some scaled armor.

"Good, the jarl has been waiting for you." the old bald guy said as Rowley approached the throne.

"You're back! What happened at the watchtower?" asked the jarl.

Trying to still comprehend what had happened only moments ago, Rowley scratched his now scruffy looking chin hair. "We uh…I killed the dragon…turns out I may be something called Dragonborn…" he finally let out.

"Dragonborn…what do you know of the Dragonborn?"

"Absolutely nothing. That's just what the men were calling me."

"Not just the men. The greybeards were calling you as well." Balgruuf said seeming quite proud of his new founded ally.

The Nord in scaled armor approached Rowley. "Didn't you hear the thundering sound as you entered Whiterun? That was the greybeards summoning you to High Hrothgar."

"How did you know I was entering Whiterun when the greybirds shouted at me?" asked Rowley.

"Greybeards." the man corrected.

"Oh I apologize. How did you know I was entering Whiterun when the 'greybeards' shouted at me?"

"I…um…just, assumed…"

"Exactly." Rowley said obviously being a smart ass. He turned to Balgruff. "So where is this high rathguard exactly?"

"Hrothgar." the scaled armored man corrected. Rowley merely glared at the Nord. He just turned away.

"Here, I'll just mark it on your map." Balgruff said cutting in before Rowley glared his opponent to death.

"What makes you think I have a map?" Rowley responded raising an eyebrow.

"Well what kind of adventurer doesn't have map?" the jarl asked.

"I just…I mean I have only been in this country for what, three days max? And in all this time I've nearly been killed at least once a day! Day one I was nearly killed by a dragon. Day two I was nearly killed by a dead man trying to find a golden claw. Day three, wouldn't you know I was nearly killed by another dragon!" he inhaled. "Every time I as much as look at someone here they seem to ask me to do something for them! What's the deal with that? It's like I'm the only person in the country who has free time or something?! I haven't had time to even think about a map! By the nine-"

"Eight." scaled man corrected. Rowley "Fus"ed him and knocked him down.

"Here how about I give you a map?" Balgruff said motioning his steward to fetch a map.

"That…that'd be great…" Rowley said sighing. "I'm just tired, it's midnight and I…I just need some sleep."

"Very well here's a key to Breezehome." the jarl handed him a key. "Your new housecarl will show you where it's located."

"Housecarl? Wait! You're giving me a house?" Rowley asked utterly confused.

"Yes you are a thane of Whiterun now and deserve a home here to call your own. Your housecarl will be Lydia, she's waiting for you by the door."

"I…thane…thank you Bal…I mean…my jarl." Rowley responded now feeling extremely guilty about his earlier outburst. "I'll just…go now and…um…thanks for the house and title…um…bye." He hurried away from the jarl to avoid making him seem even more foolish than he already was. He made his way to the door to find a woman in steel armor, with a steel sword and shield.

"The jarl has agreed to make me your housecarl. It's an honor to serve you." Lydia said trying to be as noble as she could to her new thane.

"My own personal body guard huh? Sweet." he said grinning at the fact that in just three days, he already held a position of authority, owned a home and now had his own protector. Things were looking good so far. "The jarl said you'd show me where Breezehome was?"

"Of course my thane, follow me if you will." She led him to a small house where he unlocked the door and entered. The house was completely empty and full of dirt and cobwebs.

"No wonder he gave it to me…" Rowley said sighing heavily.

"There should be a bed for you upstairs my thane. You can also buy more furnishings from steward in dragonsreach." Lydia said. Rowley checked his coin purse and found that he only had nine coins to his name. He showed his "wealth" to his housecarl.

"Oh I see…well we will just have to make some coin tomorrow my thane. I hear there's a bounty out for some nearby bandits." Lydia said encouragingly.

"Well, gotta make money somehow I suppose." He said making his way upstairs to his bedroom. He found his bed. The bed wasn't actually in bad shape. It was no worse than a bed he would have rented at the inn. Even though it was the only furniture in the house other than a few candles Lydia had found on the floor, it was still nice to have a place to call his own. He removed his armor and helm, tossed it and the shield he found at the north tower in the corner of the room and put his sword next to him beside the bed. He had no other clothes so he was in his underwear but he didn't care he just wanted to pass out and get his much needed sleep.

*Ok kind of a short chapter, I know but I wasn't sure if I would be able to get anything more done this weekend so I cut it a tad short. Thanks in advance for the reviews yall are surely to do!


	7. Bandits, wtf?

Chapter 7

Rowley awoke the next morning a little before noon which isn't unusual as I'm sure you know by now. He was laying face down in his bed with his face in his pillow trying to motivate himself to get up. He rolled over and saw Lydia standing over his bed staring at him.

"Um…Good morning?" he said with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Good morning my thane."

"Can I help you?"

"I am your sword and your shield." she said still staring at him.

"Yeeahh. I'm just gonna…get my equipment on now…" he said as she was still staring at him with her ever vigilant eyes. He casually put his armor on and equipped his sword. He took a look around his newly acquired home and assured himself that once he got the money he would renovate the home and make it a bit more livable. He was dying of hunger so he decided it would be best to stop by the tavern and get some food and maybe learn a bit more about this bounty the jarl had out for some bandits. He left the home with Lydia right behind him and headed to the local inn for food and drink. He and Lydia ate a quick lunch, and inquired about the rumored bounty with the innkeeper. She marked Halted Stream Camp on Rowley's newly acquired map and the newly appointed thane and his housecarl set off to get rid of the troublesome bandits.

They began walking toward the camp with the occasional wolf trying to eat them, you know a casual stroll through the lands of Skyrim. Rowley "Fus"ed a couple of helpless rabbits and the occasional fox along the way and harvested the little creatures body parts to sell later.

"Did you know these bandits actually have a camp that they go to?" Rowley said trying to start a conversation. "It's like a school on how to be a bandit, weird right?"

"I find it hard to believe that bandits are that organized my thane." Lydia said casually.

"Well that's what one of them told me, just sayin." He said as he casually crushed a small mudcrab he came upon.

They finally happened upon the camp and noticed several mammoth carcasses lying around. Rowley immediately thought of the fortune he could make selling the mammoth tusks from the bandit camp. He snuck up to the wall of camp and tried to make his way through the entrance without anyone noticing him. He of course had no luck nor skill at sneaking and immediately tripped on a wire with several bones attached to it and made all kinds of noise. A bandit had heard the noise and went to investigate. He ran and saw Rowley and went to raise his hand, obviously going for the bow strapped to his back. Rowley rushed him and drove his sword into the neck of the surprised bandit. The wood elf who strangely resembled Faendal from Riverwood, gurgled blood for a moment and fell over lifeless now. Rowley looked around and noticed several bandits now closing in on him.

"Damn." Rowley whispered to himself seeing that the odds were definitely in the bandits' favor. "Maybe Lydia can sneak up on them and…" Rowley turned around and saw Lydia right beside him.

"I am your sword and your shield my thane." she said unsheathing her sword.

"Gee thanks." Rowley said rolling his eyes. The bandits began closing in on them. Rowley clinched his sword and shield tightly and prepared himself for the great battle that was surely about to happen.

"So why did you kill that elf exactly?" a bandit in all steel plate armor asked.

"He was going for his bow so he could shoot me down!" Rowley said feeling his adrenaline rising. "What would you have done?!"

"He was just waving hello and welcoming you to our camp…" The bandit who was obviously Imperial said sighing. "Now I've got to go recruit another Bosmer to join our gang. Ugh…"

Rowley looked around to each of the bandits and noticed none of them were the same race. In fact, there was one of each race in their crew, minus the wood elf Rowley had killed. He then looked at the Imperial who appeared to be the leader of the bandits. "Aren't you supposed to be like…you know, trying to kill us and steal our stuff? Isn't that what bandits do?" he finally asked.

"Why all these preconceived notions about men living in a camp with a bunch of weapons and occasionally asking a random traveler to lend over all their money in exchange for their lives? I mean come on, we're just trying to make a living here." the steel plated bandit said pacing back and forth. "We've never even laid a hand on any traveler let alone hurt anyone…"

"I do." said the Orc bandit.

"What?" replied the leader.

"I…um…might have hurt a few…few dozen people on the road…maybe."

"Me too." said the Nord bandit of the group.

"But…I…Really?" asked the leader who was very surprised of this new founded information.

"Well yeah, that's what we were taught at bandit boot camp." said the Redguard of the group. Rowley looked at Lydia and gave her an "I told you" look. She just rolled her eyes.

"Bandit…boot camp?" the leader questioned.

"You…you didn't go to bandit boot camp?" the Orc asked.

"Well…no…"

The rest of the bandits looked at one another for a moment trying to process a thought in their pea sized heads. "Get him!" The other bandits proceeded to remove their leader from his position through a series of stabbing, slashing and smashing the now former leader of the crew. He did not survive the altercation.

"Ok now that that's taken care of I am the leader of this bandit faction!" the Nord said proudly proclaiming his new title.

"What makes you think you're the new chief?!" screamed the Orc bandit "I'm the one who landed the final blow!"

"Because…SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS!"

"Oh, here we go" Rowley whispered to Lydia as they slowly backed away from the impending battle that was surely to happen now.

The Orc drew his orcish battle axe and charged the self proclaimed leader of the bandit squad. The Nord drew his steel greatsword and the battle began. The Orc went straight for the Nord's head but the man ducked quickly out of the way making the Orc lose his balance and stumble. The Nord then shoved his greatsword into the Orc's back and removed it in a shower of blood. The Orc stood for a moment and turned around.

"Is that all you" he was immediately cut off as the Nord, well, cut off his head. The Orc's head bounced around the ground with its eyes open in a shocked expression.

"Anyone else want to challenge me?!" The Nord said as he kicked the Orc head towards the group of bandits. He looked around to see that no one was stepping forward. "Well then, I guess that makes me chief then hahaha." He turned around to enter the cave of the headquarters when an ice spike struck him in the back of the head killing him instantly.

"Guess that makes me chief!" yelled the Altmer bandit. As soon as he made his boast the Dunmer of the group slit his throat.

"Now I'm chief!" he yelled. This continued to happen over and over again as each new chief of the bandit group was assassinated immediately after proclaiming that he/she was chief. The last surviving member of the group who was Argonian, was about to say that he was the new chief when he looked around and saw that everyone else was dead.

"So chief…Seeing that you're the only bandit left." Rowley began. "And since I have a bounty to collect…" He drew his sword. The lizard man looked around and saw all his comrades that had been slain, then looked back at Rowley. The two stared at each other form a moment before the Argonian dropped his dagger and attempted to run away. I say attempted because he didn't make it ten yards before he fell into a large hole. Rowley ran over to investigate what had happened to the lizard bandit. He looked into the large pit where he had fallen and saw him impaled onto one of the many spikes that were sticking from the floor.

"Well…" Rowley turned and looked at Lydia. "Wanna help me take all the bandits' stuff back to Whiterun?"

"I am sworn to carry your burdens." she said dryly.

The two stripped the bandits of their gear leaving their naked bodies to rot in the open and proceeded to pillage the mine the bandits called home. They found mammoth tusks, iron and silver ore, a few jewels and a spell tome that Rowley though could come in handy. He read the title of the spell book and it said "Transmute Mineral Ore". He threw what he could in his pouch, and then he and Lydia set off to get back to Whiterun to sell all the loot.

They finally made it back and decided to go ahead and sell all the stuff they confiscated from the bandits excluding the ore, Rowley wanted to learn the transmute spell so he could maybe change the iron and silver into gold thus make him more gold. Rowley made around two thousand gold for all the junk and weapons the bandit had. After selling the loot and getting a quick bite to eat, he decided to head to Dragon's Reach to collect his bounty. He made his way up the long as steps and made his way inside where he was greeted by a guard.

"You know I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow to the knee." the guard said. Rowley looked at him for a moment and the guard stared back waiting for him to reply.

"Ok then." Rowley finally said raising an eyebrow.

"Quit lollygagging." the guard said motioning him to move along. Rowley obliged and made his way to the jarl's steward for his gold.

"Hi I took care of the bandits, so…"

"Ah very good the jarl will be pleased with this." the steward said handing him a purse of coins.

"A hundred gold? Really? That's it?" Rowley said shocked that the price for slaughtering an entire camp of people was so cheap. "I made twenty times that from selling their shit!"

"That's the standard fee for bounty hunters these days. Do you want it or not?"

"Yeah gimme it. Rowley said snatching the gold. "While I'm here, can I furnish Breezehome?"

"But of course, it'll cost two thousand to completely furnish your new home."

"Oh for love of…fine take your gold." Rowley said handing him the gold, obviously frustrated at the fact that anytime he received some gold, it almost immediately was spent on something he needed.

"Good…good, it can be furnished tomorrow." said the bald man in fancy clothes.

Rowley took his remaining gold and headed to the nearby stables to see if he could purchase a horse.

"How much for a horse?" he asked the Nord who he assumed was in charge of the horses.

"It'll be a thousand gold." the man replied.

Rowley stared at him a moment before turning around and heading to the man in the carriage who seemed to always be there.

"Hello there." the man on the carriage started. "I can take you to any of the holds in Skyrim for a fee."

"Ok, how much to go to Ivarstead?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I can only take you to the main city in each hold. Riften is pretty close to there though. In fact we will probably pass Ivarstead along the way." said the man as he smiled.

"So we can pass the town I want to go to but you will not stop there?" Rowley asked trying to understand the logic of this man.

"It's company policy I'm afraid."

"Company poli…How would anyone even know you dropped me off on the way to Riften?! I'll pay for the full trip to Riften."

"I'm afraid I can't do that" the man replied in a "I will kill you if you ask me again tone".

Rowley turned and "Fus"ed in frustration.

"Oh you're the dragonborn everyone is talking about?"

"Yes!" the dragonborn said excitedly. "Does that mean you'll take me?!"

"No." the driver said plainly before turning his head to stare into the sky or whatever he was looking at. Rowley stormed back towards Whiterun kicking a nearby chicken. He made his way back to Breezehome to try and think of a new plan. Lydia met him at the door and greeted him with a sweet roll. He took it and fetched the spell book that he got from the bandit camp and began reading it to try and learn this new spell. It was still early but learning new spells always exhausted the dragonborn so he figured if he read it, he could fall asleep earlier than normal and wake up at a decent time. He ended up throwing his helmet and shield in the corner again, unstrapped his sword and threw himself in the bed. He began the tedious task of trying to learn a new spell.

*Sorry it took me a week to get this out. And that it was so short for the time I had since last updating. I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to write. But maybe a review or two might help?


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